Petition Parliament if you think headphone use should come under new safety standards

The group wants headphone users to be provided with “smart hearing safeguarding information so they can manage the risks to their hearing and that of their children themselves”. Stressing that it is not aiming for sound levels to be mandated by government, MLSC does want Parliament to change the safety standards that apply to headphones.

And the standards set by the World Health Organisation, revised in their latest version as recently as March, 2022, describe the requirements for safe listening on devices and systems such as personal media players and headphones (ITU/WHO H.870 v2).

The petition has two action levels. At 10,000 signatures the UK government are required to reply to MLSC UK, while at 100,000 signatures they have to consider a debate on the topic. The closing deadline is May 22, 2024.

Under the slogan Love Sound, Listen With Care, the MLSC was given its official domestic launch in the UK on November 1, 2023, targeting ten- to forty-year-olds, the demographic considered most engaged in unsafe exposure to leisure sounds. The number of young people at risk of hearing damage from loud volumes in the UK is estimated to be over 10 million.

The MLSC website list of UK supporters includes the British Academy of Audiology (BAA), the British Society of Audiology (BSA), ManCAD, Tinnitus UK, the RNID, the Royal Opera House, Prof. Adrian Davis, Thomson Screening, among many others.

Source: MLSC